Glossary // Glossary term Historical
Abreaction
The discharge of emotion attached to a recalled distressing memory, as described by Breuer and Freud in their cathartic method. They reported that symptoms eased after abreaction, but the relief was often temporary, and Freud later abandoned the method. The term survives mainly as a historical reference point for the idea that expressing an emotion empties it. A short history of the concept of catharsis from Aristotle's Poetics through Breuer and Freud's cathartic method to empirical research on emotional expression, with the working definition used by this project. The works the definition rests on, with the level of evidence each was appraised at. (1895). Studien über Hysterie [Studies on hysteria]. Supports historical claims about the cathartic method and abreaction. Uncontrolled case reports cannot show whether the method was effective.Where the site uses it
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